Kecak

Amy and I just saw "Monkey Chant" ritual tonight called Kecak, and it was rad! If you've ever seen the movie Baraka, the vocals resembled the ka-ka-ka portion recorded at a temple. It takes place at a Balinese temple and consists of around 100 or so actors and actresses. Around 75 half naked men gather around in a circle and make this repetitive noise that is supposed to sound like Monkey calls. The are sort of like the musical accompaniment to the Ramayana epic that is being acted out by other costumed actors. I found a web page that describes it in a little more detail: http://music.ucsc.edu/swarasanti/bali/kecak.html

At the end of the epic is this huge monkey fight, which was chaotic, funny and a little scary. A bunch of men run onto stage playing the monkeys and take a swig of gas (yes, unleaded petrol) from a glass jar and blow it straight up in the air past lit torches which they are holding. The effect is these mushroom clouds of flame. There was a Japanese couple sitting next to us and the woman freaked a bit because the performers are only about 10ft away and you actually were heated up by the flame. The cutest (yet sad) thing was a young boy viewing the performance who was wigging out at all the scarily dressed princes from the Ramayana. We'll have pictures, and even movies, to share when we return.